Thursday, September 20, 2007

2 million photos from Panoramio in Google Earth

Yesterday 300,000 new photos from Panoramio were added to Google Earth, that means that the total number of photos in Google Earth is 2 million right now.

We also added a new feature a couple of weeks ago. Now you can ask for a second review for your photos in the case they have not been selected for Google Earth. First, check the photo acceptance policy for Google Earth and if still you think that your photo should be in Google Earth, please, submit the photo ID using this review form. We will take a second look to the photos and inform you by e-mail about the decision.

Still there is a long delay bringing the photos from Panoramio to Google Earth. However we have realized that this delay works like a quarantine with very nice effects. First during the time that photos are only in the map of Panoramio.com, they are reviewed by the visitors of the site, making difficult that inappropriate photos are sent to Google Earth. Second, during the "quarantine" the photos are viewed, added to favorites, commented, etc. thus each photo gets a popularity level that correlates quite well with its overall quality. This is extremely important because when you explore a place in Google Earth you first see the best photos and only if you zoom-in enough you get the all the others, from more to less popularity.

As anyone else, I want to see my fresh uploaded photos in Google Earth as soon as possible, but I understand that people want to see mainly the best shots from Panoramio in Google Earth, therefore I am very happy to discover the good side of the delay, it makes waiting easier. Anyway, remember that Panoramio's map gets hundred of thousands of visitors every day, so even if your photos are still not visible in Google Earth, right after being uploaded they are available to many people.

By the way, the next update of photos will be on October 15th (notice: this update was canceled, the next one on November 15th).